Why You're About To See A Lot More 'Stickers' In Your Apps

Tech startups have tried a wide range of business models in their
efforts to bring in revenue and recoup the investments made by
founders and venture capitalists.

Some go with targeted advertising — getting a big audience
quickly, then getting revenue from ads that target users based on
their interests and usage. Others do affiliate marketing,
subscriptions, or in-app purchases.

The latest monetization strategy that's making a splash is the
sales of packs of "stickers," large emoticons that you can
download and use in messaging apps in addition to text, pictures,
and video.

They're like the emoji most people use while text or instant
messaging but with an even greater range of expression.

While the idea of basing your business's income on the sale of
glorified emoticons seems a bit silly at first, the fact of the
matter is that stickers are helping some messaging apps bring in
tens of millions of dollars each month.

Fundamentally, the sale of stickers isn't all that different from
other in-app purchases, which have proven to be very successful
in mobile video games. More often than not, however, these
in-app purchases are integrated into design in such a way that
the game becomes incredibly difficult or boring to play if you
don't pay for lives or gold with real money. Two of
the biggest mobile hits in recent memory
— Candy Crush Saga and Plants vs. Zombies 2 —
are both guilty of this.

Path, the "private social
network," lets you buy packs of stickers or pay a subscription
for unlimited stickers.Path

Stickers on the other hand are useful (especially in Asian
markets, where it's far easier to use emoticons on a smartphone
than to type in your native language) but not necessary.

This means you don't feel forced when you buy stickers. Since
most apps that use stickers offer a huge selection of them for
free, making a purchase usually means that
you really like what's in the pack in
question.

That might be because the stickers are fun or it might be because
it they're of licensed characters that you'd like to reference in
conversations with your friends.

That latter happens to be the reason stickers are about to come
to Western users in a big way.

That's because Facebook integrated stickers into the
messaging platform used by its billion-plus users earlier this
year. While the current selection of packs in Facebook's Sticker
Store are all free, there are already a number of licensed
character packs for several shows and movies including "Duck
Dynasty" and "Despicable Me 2."

Once Facebook has stickers properly rolled out, the company will
likely do what it does best: Alter its design to encourage the
behavior it wants (more sticker usage) and actively target users
for packs they might be interested in.

Stickers: Making it easier
to reference Duck Dynasty in your Facebook conversations since
2013.Facebook